Hum, Dylan Moran, Hum.
Film – The Band’s Visit
CBC announced format changes recently.
I am not so much unhappy about proposed changes as I am anxious. I really do think that radio should play current music by artists that deserve exposure because of either quality or cultural significance.
Commercial radio does do some of the exposure on artists that deserve it, but for most part they just don’t cut it. I think that I’ve officially heard more 80’s music in last two years that in that particular decade. I can’t blame the commercial radio as much as I blame the market that wants to listen to the song they first made out to over and over and over again but are too lazy to put on the record.
College radio (dead air, uhm, dead air) is great, but with so many shows most of which are unlistenable to any but a small subset of a small demographic, you just can’t turn it on and leave it on.
So it falls to CBC to be the bastion of audible art. CBC has the funding, skills and mandate to do it and do it well.
However, I haven’t had a favourite radio show since late night college radio metal and madness show in my CEGEP days, but lately, I have taken a strong liking to Tom Allen. I like the music well enough, but I love his stories and enthusiasm, it really picks me up in the morning. So, understandably, I am apprehensive about the one show that I like being cancelled.
Another thing that makes me nervous is that I’ve yet to hear a non classical piece on CBC2 during daylight hours and not think “This is godawful, where did they get this and who thought this should be played on air!!!”. Now, I like all kinds of music from noize (well, not so much now that I am older, but I used to) to opera to folk to hip-hop, but it has to be picked right. Whoever is picking contemporary music right now, better get a new position or I will have to turn off CBC2 altogether.
All told, I am glad that CBC is exploring new ground and trying to do what needs to be done to nurture Canadian arts, but I am upset that the only show I care for will be lost in the wash and, if they don’t do it right, I will end up turning to the lesser evil and listen to Def Leppard on commercial radio instead.
Film – The Other Boylen Girl
I expect three things from a film:
1. Make me care
2. Make me think
3. Make me laugh
If I was to give a point for achieving each of these, the Other Boylen Girl would get a big fat zero. Now, I love costume dramas and I love historical inaccuracies, but this was truly horrible.
Admittedly, we did laugh at the film, though not with it. Matching sofa pattern dresses were funny and there were plenty of opportunity to exercise one’s wit. For example, when Anne Boylen was walking to the block we pointed out that, in real life she got her head chopped off, but this is based on a novel…
She still got her head chopped off. So much rubbish, so little imagination.
In any case, the weekend in Montreal went well, we checked out this fun little hot chocolate place and went to the Quebec Library and Archives which is really nice. Trev had a great time with his grandma meanwhile.
Film – I’m not there
“I’m not there” was the ideal brain candy for me. It is a biography that was more interested in making a statement than following a linear plot line and trying to satisfy people who are too lazy to read actual biographies. It is a good example of an “actor’s film”. It twists and bends history in interesting ways. I recognised one of the filming locales (the back of Montreal city hall in the Old Port). It has Bob Dylan music sung by other people. There is more than enough artsy faux-intellectualism to satisfy anyone and then there are zoo animals wondering in the back of the screen which may or may not be a nod to Satyricon.
If I had seen this film when it had first come out, I would have put it on my “Best of 2007” list, but as I only saw it the other day (though I was lucky to catch it in theater), it goes on the list of films I should have seen in 2007 but I had other things to do.
I should note that I neither know nor care much about Bob Dylan, I wonder if fans’ reception of this movie is less enthusiastic than mine.
Canada Readux
I was quite pleased with Canada Reads program this year. Canada Reads is CBC’s reality radio program where five Canadian “celebrities” duke it out over whose choice of literature should be read by all Canadians. I’ve read four out of five books and they were all excellent. I started reading the fifth and, since it is a collection of short stories. I’ve read one and a half stories out of this one, but it was after I knew that the book was the first to be voted off, and, as it didn’t captivate me, I didn’t care for it too much.
With the four books that I’ve read and enjoyed I would have been happy to see any of them win. “Not Wanted on the Voyage” is the most literary of the lot. It poses many challenging questions while still maintaining both drama and humor. One of the panelists described it as unrelenting. My thoughts were that it was going to win because it is, from a snooty lit-crit point of view, the best. I was laughing out loud on the bus reading “King Leary”. The voice of the narrator is just so alive. “Brown Girl in the Ring” has the most imagination. I loved the post-semi-apocalyptic Toronto, I am actually looking forward to going to TO downtown next time I am there on business. “Icefields” has a calm feel to it and appropriately so since one of the main actors is a glacier.
The panelist were diverse as usual, an actor, a hip-hop/spoken word artist, a musician, a novelist and an astronaut. We correctly predicted that “King Leary” and “Not Wanted on the Voyage” will be the last two books left in the competition. It seriously looked like “Not Wanted” will win, but the astronaut, who had been voting against “King Leary” the whole week, had had a change of heart. The argument that changed his mind was that Tim Findley will be read whether or not his novel wins the competition, but “King Leary” has gone out of print soon after it came out and it was only re-printed now because of the Canada Reads program. Though it is not as complex a work as “Not Wanted on the Voyage”, it is an excellent read and, now that it received proper attention, it can be enjoyed by many readers that would not have stumbled across it otherwise.
Snowed in
There is so much snow out there it is a home weekend for us. Chris’ plans are to copy 10 records.
My plan is to tidy and play with the boy. The two are mutually exclusive and at cross purposes. I will be busy the whole weekend and still feel like I got nothing done.
Ever since Trev started daycare and Chris went back to work, life has been crazy. I don’t think I made it to any spinning classes in two months, I go to gym once a week at work if I can compass it. I do make it to school more often than not though my goal of submitting a paper for June would be much assisted by more free time of which I have none. To top it all I am going to Toronto for a week again. The hotel has a sorry excuse for a gym, so I just might get a workout.